Running a trucking business isn’t for the faint of heart, and it certainly isn’t cheap. If you’ve been in the game for even a few months, you already know that money seems to fly out of the bank account faster than your trucks can earn it.
It’s easy to look at the revenue and feel good, but once you start subtracting the bills, margins get tight pretty quick. Whether you have five trucks or fifty, understanding the top five most common expenses of running a fleet helps you keep a tighter grip on your finances so you aren’t scrambling at the end of the month.
Fuel Costs
You can’t move freight without fuel, and unfortunately, you have zero control over pump prices. Fuel often eats up the biggest chunk of your operating budget, sometimes surpassing driver wages depending on the market. Since you can’t control the price of diesel, your best bet is controlling how you use it. Idling too long, speeding, and poor route planning all burn cash that should be staying in your pocket.
Driver Wages and Benefits
Good drivers are worth their weight in gold, and you have to pay them accordingly if you want them to stick around. Between base pay, bonuses, health insurance, and retirement contributions, personnel costs add up fast. High turnover makes this even more expensive because recruiting and training new drivers costs a lot more than retaining the ones you already have. Treating your team well isn’t just nice; it’s a smart financial move.
Maintenance and Repairs
Trucks take a beating out on the road. Tires wear down, engines need oil changes, and unexpected mechanical issues pop up at the worst times. While it’s inevitable that components will eventually break down and need replacing, you can prevent additional costs from piling up by identifying and replacing worn parts before they fail. Regular preventative maintenance keeps small problems from turning into massive repair bills that take a truck out of service for weeks.
Insurance Premiums
You can’t operate without insurance, and premiums have been climbing steadily for years. Liability, physical damage, and cargo insurance are all costs of doing business. And if your fleet has a spotty safety record, these costs skyrocket. Keeping your safety scores high and your accidents low is the only real way to keep the insurance companies from taking too large of a slice of your revenue.
Licensing and Permits
Before a wheel even turns, you have to pay for the privilege of being on the road. IFTA taxes, registration fees, and various permits required for different states or types of cargo are constant drains on the budget. These aren’t usually surprise costs, but they’re substantial ones that you need to plan for annually or quarterly to avoid penalties that hurt even more.
Watching the Bottom Line
Managing a fleet is a constant balancing act between keeping trucks moving and keeping costs down. It’s impossible to eliminate these expenses entirely, but keeping a close eye on the top five most common expenses of running a fleet gives you a fighting chance at better profitability. When you know exactly where every dollar goes, you can make smarter decisions that keep your business rolling forward.
